Former addict giving back

Sarah Day — Staff Writer

BRICELYN - Drug court graduates are left with a lot of options. For one alumnus, the focus is on helping others.

Mike Babcock, 50, of Bricelyn was one of the first graduates of the Faribault-Martin-Jackson Multi-County Substance Abuse program, commonly called drug court.

He was arrested in March 2006 for possession and sale of meth.

"I went from jail to drug court," he said. "I had seen it in the paper a couple months before I was to be sentenced. It wasn't starting for a month after I got sentenced. I didn't have my hopes up because I thought I'd slip through the cracks. ... I was given a chance and I jumped at it."

Babcock knew there were heavy restrictions and supervision in drug court, but he weighed the 18-month program against a minimum of 30 months in prison. He had been sentenced to a maximum of 58 months.

"I wasn't sure (about drug court)," he said. "It looked like a lot of work instead of just going to prison. But I thought, let's give it a try - not knowing that's what I needed, the supervision and everything."

After he was admitted into the program, everything happened quickly for him. A month in, he realized this was his shot at sobriety - not just becoming sober, but staying that way.

Babcock said there was a time when you could put him on the corner of any street in any city and drugs would come to him.

"I couldn't be in that situation now," he said. "I'd find something to keep me busy."

Most of the illegal drugs available he had tried, in any method possible. He didn't think about the repercussions. His health began to spiral downward.

"(Drug court) pretty much gave me all the tools to deal with the way I reacted to things," he said. "They taught me alternatives to problems, whatever it be. ... They taught me my choices - good or bad - have repercussions."

The program helped him get apartments, get on disability because of his medical problems and get his driver's license back.

Part of drug court includes attending different treatment programs. Babcock was living in Fairmont and didn't know anyone. So even as the treatment participation requirement waned, he was going to five or six meetings per week.

The only people I met were in recovery," he said. "There's that recovery fellowship. It got me used to speaking - saying what's on my mind."

Babcock graduated from the program in June 2008, and is still active in recovery programs and drug court. He is president of the Alumni Association and Bricelyn Alcoholics Anonymous. He also leads AA meetings at the Faribault County Jail, and is working to bring it into the new jail. He currently helps out in Albert Lea with treatment meetings. Babcock has served in leadership positions for several other recovery programs and worked with AA at the Martin County Jail.

Local drug court coordinator Bev Snow said Babcock's involvement in so many recovery programs and continued involvement with drug court has been key in his success.

"The big book of Alcoholics Anonymous says you have to give it a way in order to be able to keep it," Snow said. "And that's what's going on with Mike. That's why it's important for them to stay involved."

As alumni president, he works with the professionals who make drug court work.

"I try to do a lot of service work," he said. "I get kind of bored leading meetings all the time, so I try to get new people in. Now I try to get out there to the jails and treatment centers, especially for the younger people who are ending up in treatment centers for the first time. If they hear what you're saying, it might change their lives. It might take them a couple times. It took me a few times, and I found out the last time if I didn't quit I wouldn't be alive. ... I just wish I would have figured it out 20 years ago."

Since moving back to Bricelyn, he has run into a lot of the people with whom he used to party. Many, he said, weren't real friends and don't want anything to do with him now that he is sober.

"I still have friends that will have a few beers and bonfires," Babcock said. "They respect me enough to ask me if it's OK or give me a heads up."

Wood burning is one of his hobbies he hopes to grow into a business. He'll burn signs, cribbage boards, motorcycle or classic cars - whatever people want. Babcock also likes to do some different woodworking as well.

Babcock also has started looking into schooling. At 50, he isn't looking for long-term schooling, but maybe a few classes.

"I've looked at some courses and some of the things I'd like to do, probably with my felony, would keep me from it," Babcock said. "I would like to get into counseling. I used to cook for a living. I like cooking and I like eating."

But counseling still has his interest. Every time he sees an ad in the paper for a counselor, he pays attention to the details and will often call and ask about chemical dependency counselors.

"I'm just enjoying my sobriety now and mostly help a lot of people now who are having problems," Babcock said.

He said drug court is a program that will continue to help people turn their lives around.

"Just because you put yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people, it isn't going to do you any good to sit in jail two years - you don't learn good things in prison," he said. "Of course, there are some people who never learn. This is going to help people who made a mistake or a series of mistakes at one time.